A summit to address the chaos in Cagliari 's emergency rooms. For the first time , the 118 system and the heads of the three hospitals in the capital have gathered around the same table. Theme on the agenda: exhausting queues, blocked ambulances, tensions and inefficiencies that exasperate the minds of operators and patients.

Together with the health management of the Emergency Urgency Company, the 112 project manager, the regional helicopter rescue manager, the director of the 118 operations center in Cagliari, the company health directors, the first aid directors and the medical departments of Brotzu, Aou and Asl.

First of all, a fact. In Sardinia, in the last 3 years, the increase in interventions of 118 was equal to 37%, going from 150,000 missions in 2020 to 205,000 in 2022. Numbers that refer to a metropolitan area with a density of 337 inhabitants per square kilometers (6 and a half times that of the remaining territory). But the three hospitals also serve users from other provinces.

The consequences are there for all to see every day: "Repercussions on the whole network", explain from Areus, "with lengthening of waiting times for answering the call, increase in times of arrival at the event due to unavailability of emergency vehicles and the need to resort, where possible, to a greater number of resources, above all basic means (affiliated ambulances, managed by Associations and Cooperatives)".

Access to emergency rooms have seen “an increasing trend. Even if only one patient out of 4 of those who access the emergency room is taken by 118, it is certain that an enormous load has also arrived in city emergency rooms, also due to some closures or, in any case, downsizing of the availability of hospitalization facilities emergency and hospitals outside the metropolitan area”. With obvious consequences of overcrowding. Which in turn "leads to an increase in disputes, assaults, stressful events/burnouts which are the cause of a high turnover of personnel".

Yesterday's meeting was an opportunity to illustrate the activity and functioning of the 118 station, describing a typical day with the management of emergency calls, the dispatch of ambulances and the problems encountered upon arrival at the hospital.

The directors shared their different organizations in the current patient management, also having a very different number of operators and spaces available.

The need to streamline the management of patients arriving with the 118 was also shared with the medical directors and hospital directors, so as to free up the ambulances as soon as possible and make means and crews available again for primary aid , avoiding depriving the territory.

The prompt availability of information on free beds and knowledge of building renovation programs is also important.

(Unioneonline/E.Fr.)

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